Ars at E3: Sony announces slimmed-down PSP, due this fall

Those of you who have been looking forward to a refresh of the Sony PSP can …

At this week's E3 Media & Business Summit, Sony announced a long-anticipated update to the PSP. Due to ship in September, the updated PSP will be 19 percent slimmer and 33 percent lighter than the current PSP. Although Sony will continue to sell the black PSP as part of the $169.99 Core Pack, there will be at least two additional versions available.

On September 10, Sony will ship an Ice Silver "Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack" bundled with a 1GB Memory Stick, Daxter, and a Family Guy—Freakin' Sweet Collection UMD disc, all for $199.99. Come October 9, Sony will ship a "Ceramic White" limited-edition "Star Wars Battlefront Entertainment Pack" that will have Darth Vader's silk-screened visage on the back. The white PSP will be bundled with Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade and will retail for $199.99. Sony seemed to be proud of this Star Wars package, as Chewbacca himself came out to show off the unit's stylings.

Aside from the reduced size and weight and the new colors, the PSP's biggest addition will be a video-out port. That's right, you'll finally be able to hook your PSP up to any progressive-scan TV to view standard-definition video. The new PSP will also feature improved battery life and a faster UMD drive, which will hopefully cut down on load times for games and UMD movies.

At the press conference, the similarity between the old and new versions of the PSP caused some audience confusion. It looks just like the stock PSP at first glance. Kaz Hirai showed off the system's ability to output video and stressed that this will work for all PSP content: video UMD as well as games and pictures. The demo showed off the Spider-Man 2 trailer, and the video quality was impressively clear even when blown up to epic proportions on Sony's main stage.